Sep 8th, 09

Bennett receives the winner's trophy at Tour de le Drome

Best ride/result of the season?
Results wise, maybe 6th in Stage 1 of Tour de Boujalias, or winning Tour de la Drome (only cat 2 though). I think my best ride of the season was stage one of Tour de Loire Pillat, I only finished 13th but had what I thought was my strongest ride of the year.

Best experience (on or off the bike)?
There were a few pretty cool experiences, one of the better ones was the kiwis leaving dinner. We had a good turn-out from the supporters of the club and the staff, ate good French food and drank good French wine and celebrated the year.

Also the Tour de France was cool seeing Hayden and Julian riding with the best.

Were you happy with your 2009 International season?
Yes and no. It got off to a very shaky start but once I found my feet it picked up hugely and I started getting some good results. The amount I learnt this year was big and will go a long way to helping me next year.

When are you back in NZ?
I'm back September 20th for a while. I will be sifting around Richmond (just out of Nelson)

Are you planning on riding: Tour of Southland, Taupo Classic, Festival of Cycling, Elite Nationals...?
I'm riding Southland again with Kea Motors . I have never done Taupo so it's something I have to do at some point but it may fall around the time of my break.

I'm definitely heading down for Elite Nationals, there's a lot of good U23 riders wanting to wear the kit in Europe next year so it will be an exciting race.

Main goal for the NZ season?
Enjoy it.  Racing hard every week in Europe smashed me a wee bit so I'm planning on spending the summer with friends and family and just having some fun. I will still train hard and Elites and Tour of Wellington are the big goals. Tour de Vineyards will be thrown in there somewhere.


Related articles on Bennett's season

• Aug 15th - George Bennett wins in France
• Aug 31 - More wins for our French internationals

Read the season round-ups of all the kiwi internationals..

Greg Henderson, Peter Latham, Alex Meenhorst, Tim Gudsell, OEX Team Enterprise, Matt Sillars, Roman Van Uden, Alex McGregor, Heath Blackgrove, Wade Mangham, Glen Chadwick, Genevieve Whitson, George Bennett, Logan Hutchings, Michael Torckler, Josie Giddens, Jesse Sergent, Tom David, Jack Bauer, Sam Bewley, Rushlee Buchanan, Clinton Avery, Ryan Wills, Cath Cheatley plus recent interviews with Alison Shanks, Hayden Roulston and Jo Kiesanowski. More to come...